Harnessing the Power of Storytelling to Create Transformational Change: An Interview with Dr Susanne Evans

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for driving change, yet many organisations still rely on rigid processes that fail to engage people effectively. In this interview, Dr Susanne Evans shares her insights on how storytelling can transform the way organisations approach change, the hidden factors that often hinder transformation, and practical steps for leaders to build storytelling into their change initiatives.

The Role of Storytelling in Change:

Your session explores how storytelling can drive successful transformation. Why do you think traditional change programmes often fall short, and how can storytelling help overcome these challenges?

Many organisations approach change from a process rather than from a people-centred perspective. This can be because many changes are managed by a large programme that has project management at its core. This can lead to any change being seen as a planned series of steps, which, if completed, will lead to success. That’s not to say that project management isn’t important. But sometimes, we turn to process because it feels easier. However, to create true transformation, a more people-focused approach to change is needed, focusing on conversations, dialogue and storytelling.

This approach can create more sustainable change in two ways. Firstly, if we are more aware and pay more attention to what we hear and see in an organisation, this can help us to identify what is important to people and ensure that we take this forward into the future. I talk about story listening a lot in my work – the practice of listening and taking notice of what is going on around you in an organisation. As a consultant, I can learn a huge amount about the organisations that I am working in just by paying attention. I encourage the leaders that I work with to do the same.

Secondly, the human brain responds better to stories than facts. Stories are more memorable to us, and we engage with them better. So, if we are communicating a change to people, a storytelling focus ensures that people understand what is going to happen and feel more engaged in the outcome. When we are communicating with others, we need to start from a place of understanding what our audience needs from us in that moment and then build engaging content to give them what they need. A story can be an important part of this to aid understanding and engagement.

Uncovering Hidden Barriers:

You highlight that much of what drives organisational change happens beneath the surface. What are some of the key ‘hidden factors’ leaders should pay more attention to when driving transformation?

Most organisation change programmes are focused on looking forward rather than looking back. But the experiences that people have had of change in the past can act as an anchor on moving forward, so it is really important to dig down and unearth some of the stories and experiences from the past. From this information, we can learn lessons for doing things differently this time, and we can also demonstrate how things will be different in the future. For example, I’ve often found in technology implementations that there are a huge number of stories about the past that can limit the impact of any future change. If we don’t spend time investigating these, we can’t ensure that we learn lessons at both a project, individual and organisational level.

I’ve mentioned already the idea of identifying what is important in organisations – or ‘the best of what is’ as it’s known in appreciative inquiry. There is research to show that if this is taken forward into the future, people will engage with any change more positively. But sometimes, what people value about the organisation is not spoken about and remains hidden, so this is another important area to investigate.

Change resistance is often seen as a barrier to change, but I like to think of it as super engagement and a form of feedback that needs to be engaged with. As change practitioners, we need to get beneath the change-resistant behaviours and uncover the meaning behind them. Does someone just need more information? Are they resistant to the change and have ideas for how it could be done better? Are they resistant to the way the change is being implemented? Or is it something else? Rather than writing off change resistance as the actions of a few negative people, we need to inquire into it and learn from it.

Kets de Vries talks about ‘lifting the rug’ in organisations to identify these underlying issues and problems before instigating a change, and this is something that I remember whenever I work with organisations. I liken it to an archaeological dig – you must dig down through the layers to understand what is really going on.

Practical Storytelling for Leaders:

Many business leaders may not see themselves as natural storytellers. What practical steps can they take to incorporate storytelling into their leadership approach?

Storytelling is a key part of being human. It is something that we enjoy from a young age and is something that is built into how our brains work. We can all be storytellers; it’s just a question of practice and confidence. I created my ARIAS model to help people build their own storytelling practice:

• Attention – pay attention to the things that matter in your organisation, both to you individually and to others.
• Reflection – build time for reflection into your daily practice, learning lessons from your experiences.
• Inquiry – use dialogue, questions and conversations during periods of change to understand how people are feeling and to hear their stories.
• Appreciation – appreciate the best of what is from the past and present and take this forward into the future.
• Storytelling – translate what you have found out from the process into a meaningful story about the change. I have a template for this which is available to download on my website.

Creating a meaningful story about change enables people to feel more engaged in a change, understand what it means for them and creates a space for them to ask questions and create a dialogue about the change. In turn, this enables leaders and change practitioners to understand more about why people might resist the change (although I prefer the term super engagement to change resistance!) and improve the way that we communicate change.

Real-World Impact of ChangeStories®:

Your ChangeStories® methodology is designed to help organisations build engagement. Can you share a real-world example of how this approach has led to a successful transformation?

I worked on a major transformation programme which required new technology, new ways of working and new skills from employees and managers. Having previously undertaken many other change programmes, senior management were concerned about change fatigue and knew that they wanted to implement the change differently this time around.

I worked with the programme leadership team to create a different approach to change that was more subtle and tailored to individual and team requirements. This involved spending a lot of time working with individual leaders and teams to listen to their stories and understand their concerns about the change and then creating specific content and input that would meet their needs.

We were able to clearly describe what would look and feel different in the ‘new world’, ensuring that the transition to new ways of working happened with minimal impact on day-to-day operations. Taking a story-focused approach to change leadership paid dividends in terms of building relationships with key stakeholders and ensuring high levels of buy-in.

The Future of Organisational Change:

With workplace dynamics constantly evolving, how do you see the role of storytelling in change management developing over the next few years? What trends should organisations prepare for?

There is an increased interest in the storytelling approach as more people become familiar with the concept. So, I hope that more change programmes will have a storytelling focus right from the beginning. In the future, I am very interested in exploring the impact of AI on storytelling in organisations. To date, AI is not good at developing stories or narratives as it is a very human skill, but I remain interested to see how this might change in the future.

Dr Susanne Evans will be speaking at the Business Change & Transformation Conference Europe 2025, sharing her expertise on storytelling as a tool for transformational change. Don’t miss her session on Monday, June 16, 2025, at 2:00 PM.